The Geese Ball
by SniperCT
Summary: Set between A Small Price to Pay and Painting With Water, everyone is preparing for the annual Geese Ball, a yearly event honoring the royal geese. Even Cassandra thinks its for the birds but everything is fine until she sees the dress Rapunzel picked out.


The Geese Ball was a semi-annual event held at the castle to honor the annual migration of Geese. It had been started by Rapunzel's triple-great grandmother, an eccentric woman who'd been quite taken with the birds.

As far as Cassandra was concerned, it was _for_ the birds. Getting everything ready for a ball was stressful enough as it was without wrangling a half-dozen of the guests of honor. They even had assigned seats at the table this year. Grace, Gertrude, George, Giselle, Gregory and Garrett would be sitting at the table on the West side. After the disaster last year, this had been deemed a necessary precaution.

"Eugene, have you seen Giselle?"

He gave Cass a confused look. "I don't know Giselle from Gertrude, I can't tell them apart."

Pinching her nose, Cassandra said with more patience than she had left, "Giselle has the lame wing and a grey spot over her right eye, Gertrude is brown with speckles, Grace is the really mean one, George has a white patch on his back, Gregory is grey with speckles, and Garrett is the party goose."

"Okay...but for the record, they're _geese_. They're _all really mean!_ " Eugene froze mid hand gesture. "Party goose?"

"Don't ask." Cassandra rubbed her face. "Once I find Giselle I'm going to change, can you _please_ keep an eye on the others?" She pointed at the table where five geese were squabbling over a loaf of bread.

Eugene looked over at them, assuming the one in the party hat was Garrett, then glanced back at Cassandra only to find that she'd already left. "I don't know what it was I did, but I probably deserved this."

Giselle, it turned out, had wandered up one of the towers. Cass slowly approached her, "Okay, easy now. We're just going to go back downstairs. There's bread downstairs. You're like Eugene, you're motivated by food. Lets go have some bread."

"Cass, is that you?"

Cass realized which tower she'd come up to, "Yeah Raps, i'm just trying to wrangle one of the geese."

"Thank goodness." She poked her head out of her door, "I can't get this dress on."

"Crap. I'm sorry, I've been so busy with the geese I forgot to help you." Hoping Giselle would either stay put or wander back to the banquet hall, Cass walked into Rapunzel's room.

Rapunzel smiled at her, then turned around to show her back. "It's okay, I just thought I'd try to get it on myself. Easier said than done."

"You could have worn your usual one," Cass said. She stared at the expanse of bare back longer than was strictly necessary, before reaching for the laces. She could do this. She'd done this a hundred times. Why was it a problem now?

"I know, but I wanted to try something different. I overheard some of the guards talking, and I guess…" She ran out of air as Cass pulled the laces firmly tight. This corset was a lot more rigid than anything she usually wore and the room spun for a moment until she could breathe again. "Okay, wow, why do women put themselves through this?"

She turned around to face Cassandra and Cassandra's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "Raps…."

"What do you think?" The corset made Rapunzel speak breathlessly, which only made Cassandra's knees weaker than they already were, because the corset and dress were doing other very nice things to Rapunzel. The neckline was dangerously low, and her chest was pushed _up_ and Cassandra took two steps back and sat down. Unbidden, Eugene's voice rang in her head 'you just walked into a booby trap!'

Thanks Eugene. "It's uh. It's a lot, Raps."

"Do you think Eugene would like it?"

"Yes." That helped break the spell, Eugene's name like a cold bucket of water. Logically, she knew Rapunzel wouldn't wear something like that for her, that it would be for Eugene, but for just a moment she'd almost allowed herself to wish. "I don't know if he'll survive, but he'll like it."

"What?"

"Don't worry about it, go down there and enjoy yourself." Cass got up and put her hand on Rapunzel's back to guide her towards the door and trying valiantly to not let her eyes dip. Curse her superior height, "Do you remember your speech?"

"I've got it memorized!" she reached the first stair, and felt like she might fall down it. "Cass, can you come down with me?I think I might fall."

"Of course."

Rapunzel took Cass's hand and started down the stairs, moving slowly as Cass followed her. With each step, Cass's emotions became more and more of a jumble. It wasn't just the sheer, in-your-face of what Rapunzel was wearing or the improved view she had from above. Everything going back to before Rapunzel's coronation was cast in a new light.

By the time they reached the banquet hall, Cassandra realized just how deeply she'd fallen. The sheer injustice of it all was etched in the expression on Eugene's face and the way Rapunzel's lit up when she saw him.

At least Giselle had found the geese table. Small victories.

Cassandra moved to Rapunzel's side and sat down. It was not at all safe to look to her left, though one glance told her that Eugene was in the same predicament. That satisfied her a little bit. The King looked vaguely uncomfortable and the Queen just looked _amused_.

Oh, this party was off to a _great_ start.

Rapunzel stood and rang her glass. "Okay everyone!" She took a moment to catch her breath, before continuing. "We convene to recognize the most wonderful of waterfowl, the glorious goose! Two hundred years ago…. Queen Genevieve crowned them the official royal waterfowl, and every year since we've … we've celebrated their great …. contributions to Corona."

She set her glass down, trying to breathe deeply, then gestured towards the guests of honor. "Today we have … we have the descendants of those first royal geese, who my great great great grandmother claims to have saved her life….And…"

"Blondie?" Eugene looked at her with concern.

"I'm fine. Fine." And then the whole room swayed, then spun as she keeled over backwards.

Cassandra jumped out of her chair, catching Rapunzel before she hit the ground. Eugene was just as fast, and he looked at her. "How tight did you make those laces?!"

"Any looser and she'd have popped right out of the dress," Cass snapped. "Get her to her room, I'll try to save this."

"Popping _would_ be bad."

While Eugene carried Rapunzel off, Cassandra picked up where she'd left off, "Sorry everyone. Rapunzel just got a little excited. She'll be fine. In the meantime, allow me to introduce our guests of honor."

She spared a look at where Eugene and Rapunzel had gone, before she started to introduce the geese. Cassandra would check on Raps, but otherwise she'd have to carry on like normal. What choice did she have? After all, Ladies in Waiting did not get happy endings when they fell for their princesses.


End file.
